Renegade Abyssal Game/The Plot
The Plot Marukan and thereabouts (8 sessions) Stalker and Harrower meet outside of Thorns. They decide to get out of the shadowland. Stalker and Harrower meet Walker. He leads them back into Thorns to retrieve a contact of his, Ezekiel, who gives them a map to a tomb of some sort. Stalker, Harrower and Walker go to Celeren and drop Ezekiel off at the Guild. They meet Scarlet there, who joins up. Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet go to the Marukan mountains to find the tomb. They fight their way into the excavation, protected by a Dragon-Blooded lieutenant from Lookshy. Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet violate the tomb, get past puzzles and slay demons. They find it is the tomb of a Solar named the Returning Coyote. They rob the place, getting artifact-working tools, an orichalcum spear, armour and circlet. Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet decide to take over Greyfalls. They move north to the river, and slay a hapless village to take their fishing boats. Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet boat east. They are accosted by wolfmen pirates and take their ship. They boat slowly east, towards Nexus, where Walker wants to go for some reason. Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet encounter the site of a naval battle which has turned a section of the river into a shadowland. Here they encounter and defeat the deathknight Warped Mirrors Shattered, who seems mutually acquainted with Stalker. Mirrors escapes by sinking. Nexus (8 sessions) Stalker, Harrower, Walker and Scarlet reach Nexus. Walker goes to check his accounts with the Guild, while Harrower goes look for someone to exchange one of his grimcleavers for a shield. Harrower breaks into a house impulsively and Scarlet steals a small boy's glass marble. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet find that Walker vanished somewhere while they were escaping. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet go to Firewander in search of employment. They kill some gangers and earn the friendship of Tallest Oak, ostensibly an elderly Heroic Mortal, who promises to spread the word about Harrower's need for work. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet search for lodgings and bickered romantically. In the evening, Harrower and Tallest Oak armwrestle in an inn, and Tallest Oak Wins. Harrower goes without resplendent Abyssal sex for the day. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet are still in Nexus. They get information from Tallest Oak that a potential employer will be waiting for the conspicuous Harrower at the Filth market at dusk. They go there, and jointly mutilate a little girl thief. Thereafter, they go to a crackhouse where Harrower commits unique and well-thought-out atrocities on druggies and the others say that he's sad and lonely and don't give him hugs. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet fight with a practitioner of the Orgiastic Fugitive Style who happens across their crack house. Scarlet is very nearly mortally wounded, but the dragon-blood doesn't survive. Harrower meets with a mysterious man who hires him to eradicate the Fair Folk presence in the city. Stalker and Harrower go to the Wyld Zone in Firewander. After mucking about with illusions, they battle three Fair Folk on top of a pyramid, winning. One escapes, the rest dissipate on death. Harrower wills the zone into a shadowland-like-thing. Stalker fetches Scarlet, so that they can all rest in their natural habitat. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet rest and recuperate. The Thaumaturge fails to find a soulsteel shield, and Harrower doesn't want a Jade or Moonsilver one. Stalker hunts down the guy who hired them to kill Fair Folk and accidentally kills him. Scarlet them raises his body as a zombie, while he rises as a Hungry Ghost. Scarlet wrestles it, and everyone tries to change its mind about killing Stalker. They fail, so Stalker annihilates the ghost with her blade. A day later, Harrower and Scarlet go crash into a local Guildhouse, make demands to be employed - only to have several hundred Nexus militia come for them when they convince the bureaucrat that that they must be hired through force of arms. Stalker accompanies them, from rooftops. Harrower and Scarlet confront the Nexus militia, find out that they've been sentenced to death by the Council. A fight breaks out, in which Harrower and Scarlet slay a couple hundred Bronze Pioneers and a mysterious exalt of unknown nature leading them. Meanwhile, Stalker has a duel with a Dragon-Blooded commander arriving on the scene, and slays him, albeit not easily. The rest of the Nexus forces scatter. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet decide to leave the city. They try to cross over to the Underworld using their fake shadowland, but find that it's too fake. Instead, they go leave Nexus on foot. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet almost leave Nexus, only to be confronted by the Emissary. In the ensuing conflict, the Emissary doesn't show signs of being injured, but knocks out Stalker and Harrower. Scarlet triggers an Essence crisis as a last-ditch effort to win, accidentally creates a small shadowland which the characters use to escape into the Underworld. Resting in the wasteland that's the Underworld equivalent to Nexus, they bicker endlessly about where to go, and discover that they have mutations - Harrower's feet turning wolfish, Scarlet gaining claws on her hands, and Stalker growing a tail which she disguises. Underworld (3 sessions) Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet argue endlessly, before deciding to go east to Walker's Realm to get back into Creation. Since they left their food in Nexus, they are starving, and toughen up as they go. They meet a strange ghost on the way, whom Scarlet tutors in proper martial arts for a moment, and learn there are minor towns on the way to the shadowland. Harrower makes haste, and arrives first, buying food from a merchant, while the other two get their nutrition by taking some other ghost's food. Scarlet prays to the Unconquered Sun for help, and is doomed. Stalker tries as well, only to get Resonance, and a special gift from the Neverborn - hatred for her sword. Harrower waits for the other two at the ferry to the other side of the river. Stalker and Scarlet arrive, to extort some more food from another ghost, who turns out to be very adversarial. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet have a battle with Audo the ghost martial artist and his consort. Wounded, both parties retreated, not wishing to die there. Stalker, Harrower and Scarlet recriminated and came to the conclusion that their approach to things is wrong, since it keeps landing them in trouble, and resolved to be nicer. Meanwhile, Prophet arrived from the other side of the river by ferry, and saved the deathknights from starvation by virtue of having a cart laden with provisions with him. The foursome set out to Walker's Realm, using the polite approach to secure transportation across the river in their path at a ghost village. Prophet turned out to be quite knowledgeable on a number of subjects, and his connection to the Neverborn yielded information that the unknown Exalt Harrower and Scarlet fought in Nexus was a Sidereal. Stalker, Harrower, Scarlet and Prophet exit the Underworld by way of Walker's Realm, but don't stay because of its curse. They move northwest, towards Sijan, and encounter the tell-tales of a warzone. Eventually, they reach a town with allegedly enchanted walls besieged by dematerialized ghosts. As they negotiate entrance, a gigantic necrotechnical crab approaches, with a unit of zombies in tow. Harrower, Scarlet and Prophet engage the crab, and make use of their perfect defenses to avoid getting gruesomely killed. Scarlet doesn't, for want of them, and is slain. Harrower and Prophet slay the beast, and approach the town, where the mortals are finishing off the unsupported zombie horde. Stalker is there too. Rocky Meadow (7 sessions) Stalker, Harrower and Prophet enter the town of Rocky Meadow as saviours and heroes. They are taken to meet the town wizard, Kersan, who turns out to be a mortal sorcerer. Kersan answers a bunch of questions relating to occult knowledge and proposes the three stay a while and listen, and learn sorcery among other things. In return, the deathknights would protect the town from threats, and deal with the ghosts sieging it. Prophet gave a funeral to Scarlet, who meanwhile emerged as a ghost in the Underworld. Stalker, Harrower and Prophet trained in preparation to deal with the war ghosts sieging the town. Stalker, Harrower and Prophet decide to properly inspect the crab. They find a dead body of a ghostblooded man inside, as well as a hearthstone. Prophet determines that the manse associated with the hearthstone is to the east, probably within Walker's Realm. Meanwhile, Harrower and Stalker move the crab piece-by-piece to a somewhat distant swamp over the course of a few days. Stalker (invisibly), Harrower and Prophet go meet the ghosts' leader, who they order to withdraw and spare the town. He asks their names, and they introduce themselves as Murder of Crows Set to Feast Upon the Majesty of Kings and Scarlet Scream That Ushers In Unending Silence. The ghost army then departs. Stalker, Harrower and Prophet return victoriously to the town, and announce that the ghost problem has been temporarily solved. The wizard teaches Prophet sorcery and goes about solving the problem permanently, by dint of moving the town's population south. Prophet summons a flame duck to serve as a lieutenant for a month. The council eventually agree to migrate the townspeople, and the party agree to escort them. Negotiations are crashed by Warped Mirrors Shattered and Grandfather to Slaughter, two deathknights, of whom the former escapes and the latter dies gruesomely at the hands of Harrower. The council survive, but are wounded, and Stalker notices that one of the people tending to them is greatly out of place. Stalker summons Prophet and Harrower, who deal with the Solar who identifies himself as Coyote. Harrower recalls that it was his tomb they ransacked a while back. Coyote questions the party for whereabouts of Walker, and getting no useful answers, departs. Harrower throws a fit over the Solar's sudden disappearance. Stalker decrees that she is going after her sister, and leaves. Just as Harrower's tantrum dies down, Maze arrives in town, and introduces himself to Prophet and Harrower, then joins the team. Prophet and Maze use reason and intimidation to convince the belligerent goddess of the town to let the people leave. After the townspeople pack up, they go southeast for almost a month, before they are surrounded in the night by wolfmen. Harrower, Prophet and Maze go deal with them, and bloodily engage three groups of the beastmen. Harrower, Prophet and Maze kill each and every one of the wolfmen and return to camp. Therein, they find that the villagers were attacked, but with the help of Prophet's lieutenant, the wolfmen were fended off with minimal casualties. Harrower and Maze (Prophet having grown silent of late) venture forth following a dragon line that Harrower located. They arrive at a reddish tower on a hill with a camp of wolfmen at its base. After dispatching the skeleton crew of the Lunar spawn, they investigate the tower, and find that it has the property of sheathing itself in fire when assaulted. The entrances being no match for daiklave-grade violence, Harrower gains entry and finds it a long-abandoned military outpost, with ten bodies in the hearthroom below. He attunes the minor fire manse while Maze examines the weaponry therein, finding strange bowlike devices, one of which he keeps. Harrower eventually attunes and repairs the damage inflicted when entering, and the duo return to the caravan to move on with the migration. Harrower, Maze and Prophet journey on, and encounter a huge herd of Yeddim. Remembering back his days as a Solar, Maze tames one of them. As they travel on, Prophet mentions the Empty City of Denandsor is to the southeast, and the other two decide it's a pretty good idea to go loot it. Eventually, the villagers decide they have made it far enough away from Walker's Realm, and Maze finds them an ideal spot for a city. Harrower gets promised a statue of the party, and Prophet gives the town wizard a set of blueprints for a nice settlement design. After parting ways with the mortals, Harrower and Maze ask questions of Prophet, who is very knowledgeable, and he answers them on topics of Abyssal exaltations, monstrances and the Empty City itself. Denandsor, the Empty City (4 sessions) Harrower and Maze (and Prophet) go to Denandsor, fighting off unnatural fear. Harrower checks out some books from the library, and leaves because he doesn't have a social PD. Prophet studies First Age philosophy. Maze goes steal a warstrider, detours into obtaining a writ of access to the staging area, and gets the automaton police on his tail. Eventually, he gets in the compound, and uses a stolen goremaul to break into one of the hangars, revealing a black jade noble warstrider. Maze figures out how to make the warstrider go, procuring two hearthstones from nearby longdeads. After destroying the door to the bay, he is jumped by a few hundred of Denandsor's sentinels. Fortunately, he manages to escape, albeit sustaining severe wounds, taking with him the warstrider, a giant dire lance and a suit of gunzosha powered armour. Harrower and Maze wait for the latter to recuperate and speak of going to Thorns to retrieve Harrower's monstrance. Prophet does not exit the city in that time. Harrower and Maze rest up for a few days, then enter the city once more because Maze wants a suit of Dragon Armour. Harrower takes the warstrider. They have a brief fight with flying automatons, demolishing a block. While searching for artifacts, they find a room with a portal of some sort, out of which comes Stalker. Stalker goes invisible and stays the hell away from the other two, tracking them back to their camp. She waits until nightfall, steals back Soul Mirror, and proceeds to reintroduce herself to Harrower by throwing rocks at him. The teasing goes on until Maze wakes up and points out that Stalker is invisible, and not a hallucination. Plans and recent events are exchanged. Harrower gives Stalker a hug. Harrower, Maze and Stalker debate some more and leave the next day for Thorns. They decide to leave without Prophet, who's probably either fine or dead. One and a half day away from Denandsor, they encounter a force of reinforced zombies under the command of the deathknight Reaper of the Unhallowed Crop and the not-closer-identified Frozen Creek, servants of the First and Forsaken Lion. After some basic inquiries and removing Stalker from the negotiations, they strike a deal - information on the source of Harrower's warstrider in exchange for a thousand of the zombies. Both Maze and the Reaper sanctify the deal in the sight of the Neverborn. The army then leaves for Denandsor. Road to Thorns (8 sessions) Harrower takes the zombies and warstrider off to Thorns, post haste. On the way he encounters a nice oasis, and is troubled in his sleep by a raksha who's got beef with him. The Fair Fellow escapes, wounded, following a brief duel. Stalker follows, much more slowly with the yeddim. Maze checks out Denandsor meanwhile, getting some neat loot, and finding out that the Reaper and friends have been sufficient to defeat its guardians. He exits on a mechanical horse, and meets up with Stalker. They decide to leave the yeddim where it is, and run the horse into near-disintegration to catch up with Harrower, who has reached the major river temporarily setting back their progress. Harrower learns how to walk on water, and Maze constructs a cage. Stalker makes smoke signals. Harrower wears the warstrider, puts zombies in the cage, and makes several trips to haul everyone to the other side, being Void Jesus. Harrower, Maze and Stalker talk about their plans. They decide that Harrower should go around the nearby city, Varsi, with the zombie army and the warstrider, while Stalker and Maze investigate. In Varsi, Stalker gets a quest from a cloaked stranger, to find an amulet, and goes off to find it in a nearby ruin after she gets three horses out of her employer first. On-site, she doesn't find the amulet, but finds a black blob which manages to fight her semi-effectively. Stalker wounds it, but lets it flee. Meanwhile, Maze gathers information, but fails to come up with anything worthwhile other than a map. The two go rejoin Harrower. Stalker and Maze return from Varsi. Just when they are about to continue on their way with Harrower, a tornado on the horizon shows up and deposits a Wyld Hunt, escorted by a unit of erymanthoi. The Terrestrials issue a death threat, and join war. In the ensuing battle, the zombie horde proves inferior to demonic apes, and the trio are forced to rout. In an exercise of stealth and daring, Maze attunes to the warstrider and aids the other two in the escape. While escaping, the team recriminates and plans for the future, eventually deciding to rest up and then go to Thorns a bit more stealthily. Stalker tries to attune to a chance-found demesne, but fails miserably, while Maze hides the warstrider and Harrower catches fish. Harrower, Stalker and Maze rest up and talk plans some more. Stalker attunes to a demesne, and painfully draws motes. Harrower, Stalker and Maze are ambushed in their cave by the Wyld Hunt, at dawn. A battle begins, only to be ground to a halt due to the Loom of Fate malfunctioning. Time is frozen until Sidereals can fix the problem. With the Loom fixed, the battle continues. Eventually, the Terrestrials start to lose, and retreat by Stormwind, leaving hastily-materialized Blood Apes to cover their retreat. Mid-battle, Scarlet Dust Fox shows up and tries to help, but gets overwhelmed by Erymanthoi. Harrower kills a lot of demons, and everyone but the Lunar feasts on their blood. Stalker, Harrower and Maze try to determine Fox's allegiance dysfunctionally. Harrower, Stalker, Maze and Fox leave on a Stormwind conjured by Fox. They travel to the inland sea west of the Grey River, and camp there. Here, they meet a nomadic trader calling himself Isack. He trades with the party, conveniently pulling out just what they needed from under the tarp on his cart, and taking a fair trade in exchange. Harrower gets a soulsteel shield, Maze gets perfect arrows and a soulsteel harmonic adapter and Stalker gets the map to a nearby manse. Everyone goes to find and explore the manse, which turns out to be a submerged and hidden place apparently intended to be some kind of dojo. After Stalker attunes, Harrower gives a recap of theirs plans so far. Fox explained some things concerning Stalker and Harrower's mutations. Harrower, Stalker, Maze and Fox train in the manse for two weeks, then go to Thorns via Stormwind Rider. On the way, they encounter very aggressive bees that get into their stormwind. They faff around with the bees for some time, then go off to Thorns when they manage to escape. Near Thorns, they notice a bunch of Solars (and a Lunar) battling Mask of Winters and an Abyssal. Maze takes some potshots, before deciding it's a better idea to skip the battle entirely. Stalker exits the stormwind and goes to Thorns on foot. Monstrance Raid (3 sessions) Harrower, Maze and Fox decide to go to the outskirts of Thorns. Harrower hides in his warstrider which he hides in the terrain, while Fox and Maze sneak into town. Fox botches up and is captured by ghosts, who imprison her in the Shackle Maw Penitentiary. Stalker arrives, sneaks in and begins gathering information on her sister. Maze meets with Stalker to discuss Fox getting captured, and they proceed to blather their way through the prison staff, taking custody of Fox. The trio use an abandoned house for a brief resting place. Stalker, Maze and Fox argue for some time, then get some gear for infiltrating the Juggernaught with, and leave the city. They reunite with Harrower, and the whole team goes over to the behemoth. With a combination of charms and armours, they scale the treacherous path on his back with ease, arriving at Mask of Winters' stronghold. Harrower, Maze, Stalker and Fox gain violent entrance into Mask of Winters' castle, but the defending skeleton crew manages to get off a light show to notify their overlord of this fact. They smash through the halls and rooms, and encounter a cowardly deathknight and a stealthy deathknight, the latter being named Infiltrator. He injures all except Harrower, and leaves before he is overcome by the party's counterattacks. The cowardly deathknight flees without having to be engaged in combat. The team make their way down, into the bowels of Juggernaught, and find the room with all of Mask of Winters' monstrances. Harrower and Stalker found theirs, and six others. Harrower breaks his and it feels awesome. Maze feeds on Juggernaught, whom he determines to be still alive, and it feels awesome too. Stalker forbids to hurt her monstrance, and takes another one too. The raiders emerge smashingly from the fortress, to find that the battle outside is approaching fast. With everyone in tow, Fox summons a stormwind and takes off South. Meet the Lunar (3 sessions) Harrower, Maze, Stalker and Fox flee south. Fox looks for a vulture-totem Lunar whose territory she remembers being around here, and eventually they find the camp of Three Gray Feathers. It is unusual in that it contains undead coexisting with beastmen, and a deathknight of the Silver Prince by the name of the Malevolent Apostle Dreaming Broken Dreams. They talk among themselves, seeing as Feathers is out. Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Apostle faff around in the beastman camp. Fox analyzes the monstrances, determines their notable properties. Apostle casts Flesh-Sloughing Wave on the spare monstrance, and nothing happens. Maze is mostly absent, Harrower trains, Stalker objects to any harm being done to her monstrance. Three Gray Feathers arrives with the sound of broken glass, has breakfast with Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Apostle. An agreement is made - the spare monstrance and information on Mask of Winters in exchange for instruction, hospitality and information on monstrances. Feathers then goes off with the monstrance for a week. People train. Feathers returns, tells that monstrances are devices for turning Solars into Abyssals and keeping their shards, and also that monstrances can be safely destroyed. Some realize that he probably told Lytek about the whole problem. Fox suggests that they stick with Feathers, and work with the Silver Pact for a while. There is general assent to this plan. Faffery Redux (7 sessions) Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Apostle go with Three Gray Feathers to his stronghold in the volcanic southern mountains, over the course of two months of trekking. It turns out to be a restored First Age facility. Apostle and Harrower spar, and after winning, Harrower vents resonance messily. There is talk about plans. Maze and Fox make use of the provided hot baths. Harrower makes use of the provided shadowland room. Stalker stealths around and shifts rubble. Harrower and Stalker excavate a bit of TGF's fortress. They find some lava, a treasury and a portal to Malfeas. They find these discoveries to be uninspiring. Then they talk to Fox, Maze and Apostle and decide to go scout-and-kill to Denandsor via Stormwind. Near Denandsor, Stalker pisses off Fox, so Fox boots her off the Stormwind. Stalker sustains minor injuries, and decides to kill Fox, but not before hauling her monstrance over to her manse on foot. The others argue and faff around on the outskirts of the city - notably unaffected by any aura of fear - trying to determine how to handle this new turn of events. Stalker continues trekking and eating peasants along the way. Meanwhile, Harrower, Maze, Fox and Apostle explore the ruined Denandsor, finding it has been effectively razed. They find many jade artifacts. The daimyo's palace they find looted, but discover a hidden passageway, which nets them a Soulbreaker Orb. Following that, they argue at length what to do with the damn thing, reaching no particular conclusion. Harrower tracks down where the victors went: into the Underworld, by means of mass sacrifice. Unfortunately, they closed the shadowland behind them. Eventually, they leave towards Feathers' castle on Fox's Stormwind Rider. Stalker still treks on, murdering random people. Harrower, Maze, Fox and Apostle get back to the castle. Maze wants to learn Sorcery from Fox, so he has a fight with Harrower for the Ordeal of Humility. Stalker sheds some Resonance and makes a giant Blight. Stalker travels, fails to purchase yeddims with very scant resources. Harrower, Maze, Fox and Apostle visit the doorway to Malfeas - after training for a tenday - and decide not to invade today. Then they went off on the Stormwind to find Stalker. Harrower, Maze, Fox and Apostle track Stalker down pretty fast and somehow manage to convince her to give Fox another chance - during the next month, she is to prove herself, or Stalker will resume her killing intent. Then they return to Three Gray Feathers' stronghold, and are informed that the Gathering will be held in approximately four days. Apostle and Stalker train a bit, too. Lunar Gathering (3 sessions) The Lunars arrive: Butterfly of the Night, with an entourage of mothmen and a young Lunar by the name of Willful Teasing Ferret, going by Stormwind. Silver Tyrant Unleashed, bringing two young Lunars - Ox-Mighty Troublemaker, and Beautiful Blinding Quicksilver - apparently by falling out of the sky. Feathers and the others greet them, then proceed to the feast. Stalker sits near the exit and refuses to socialize. Harrower amuses the audience and rolls Stamina + Performance with Ferret later that night. Apostle, Maze and Scarlet socialize with Quicksilver and Troublemaker, speaking about current matters, and learn that Tyrant - who is more concerned with food and alcohol than with anything else - knows how to punch mutations out of people. Maze and Scarlet retire for some private fun. Apostle approaches Butterfly with a cheesy pick-up line and scores. Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Apostle wake mostly hangover-free after a night of revelry. Apostle had his brain picked by the Lunar Elder he slept with. By mid-afternoon, they attend a conference, where Harrower presents the party's history and relevant tangential information. Feathers is revealed to be somewhat infamous among Lunars. Scarlet gets the Tyrant to punch Stalker into normality later. Maze gives a presentation on the nature of Abyssals and their potential reversion to Solarity. Butterfly promises to help if he succeeds. Tyrant punches Stalker, ridding her of the terrible affliction of Tail. The party recriminates a little bit. Then everyone goes to eat (except Harrower, who doesn't). Apostle gets around to his sacrifice for the Labyrinth Circle Necromancy (narm, narm!), and gets Feathers to start teaching him. Scarlet meekly tries to find out Feathers' secret, but being politely rebuffed, gives up on that point. Butterfly, later, describes the mission for the Circle: infiltrate Gem, find out what a nascent Solar Deliberative is up to (if there really is one). Some Lunars have disappeared there, and the Silver Pact wants to know what exactly happened to them. Harrower states his desire to end Mask's unlife, and requests the Silver Pact's help in making that possible - the request is approved. Stalker walks back to her tent, only to find a written social attack, fake monstrance, and a message from Warped Mirrors Shattered. She flips out, and almost everyone shows up to discuss the matter, Scarlet is blamed. An investigation is arranged. It reveals that Mirrors arrived by necromantic teleportation with a fake monstrance, took Stalker's appearance, swapped the monstrances, then left. The others mostly plan. Tyrant brings back Stalker's monstrance, when asked reveals that Returning Coyote is one of the confirmed Solars of this new Deliberative. Butterfly later confirms and adds two more with enough description for Stalker to copy. Harrower takes care of most of the planning, and comes up with the perfect plan. Scarlet says farewell to Troublemaker and Quicksilver. Gem (4 sessions) Harrower, Maze, Fox, Stalker and Apostle prepare and plan. Apostle gets asked a favour by Three Gray Feathers - fetch a live Terrestrial, when he can get the chance to do it stealthily. Travelling by Stormwind, they arrive at the base of the mountain that Gem sits on. Everyone bickers. Then everyone splits up. Stalker, and Maze and Scarlet independently come up with an establishment known as the Sun and Moon, in the Sun Market. Apostle kills a bunch of guards violently, and gets chased around, putting the whole city on alert. Harrower attracts attention to take it off everyone else. Scarlet, Maze and Stalker investigate the Sun and Moon. Meanwhile, Apostle slays an undertaker and uses the remains of one of his earlier victims to summon forth a ghost. Apostle grills the ghost for information, then visits a casino owner, whose guards he kills and gets some vague intelligence that there might be Anathema in the Sun Market. Along the way, he kills another fifty doomed watchmen. Harrower runs into some Solars, whom he duels to the death in the deep tunnels, and whose stuff he takes to sell up top. Stalker watches Scarlet and Maze. Maze has a brief spell where Willow takes over. The couple then investigate the shop, find that the owner is in cahoots with the Solars, but Maze convinces him to check with his superiors if some diplomacy with the Lawgivers can be had. Maze, Stalker, Scarlet, Harrower and Apostle randezvous outside the Sun and Moon. Stalker sneaks off to tip off the guard about the mass murderer's whereabouts, and they surround the area. Harrower intimidates the guards, since he's not got a warrant on his head yet, and simply walks through them. Scarlet turns into a cat, which is picked up by Maze, who turns invisible, and walks out of ground zero. Stalker turns into a guard. Apostle prepares for the fight of his life. Apostle gets killed in two minutes of mass combat. Stalker steals his gear, and trolls for free drinks. Harrower starts buying information on Anathema sightings, with dubious results. Scarlet studies to learn Infallible Messenger. Maze resolves to go talk to the Solars. Apostle reincarnates as 'Herrick', a mercenary slain near Paragon. He starts on the road towards Feathers' castle, having some misadventures. Maze and the rest of the team, save Stalker, meet with Solars. The Solars meet them in an opium den, disguised as mercenaries. The party is told to leave within two hours. Maze offers to be experimented upon, but is turned down, and told to go to Yu-Shan instead. Maze realizes that the disguised leader of the Solar delegation was Returning Coyote. Meanwhile, Stalker goes binge-drinking disguised as Scarlet and piles boy-toys on Fox's bed. After some more chatter, Fox casts Stormwind Rider and spirits the deathknights away. The Hunt (6 sessions) Herrick continues with his misadventures, encountering a nomadic trader, a giant antlion, and a tribe of sandpeople, attempting to slay each, and finally being killed by the latter. Meanwhile, Harrower, Stalker, Maze and Fox evade capture, going in zig-zags and entering the Underworld to lose the Solar pursuit. Eventually, they make it to the Underworld version of Feathers' castle. Harrower, Stalker, Maze and Fox approach the castle and are let in by some soldiers. Therein, the gates and closed and Warped Mirrors Shattered reveals herself to fight the party, bringing the soldiers into the battle as killable scenery. The fight continues into the next week... ...with another Lunar, Foe Whitebeard, joining the fray even as Fox flees the huge mass of soldiers whittling at her health. Stalker and Warped Mirrors Shattered exchange words and Stalker finds that the Neverborn really are backing her sister. Eventually, Mirrors falls to Stalker, and bleeds out. Upon death, she turns to vapour, vowing return. When their commander falls, the mortal troops scatter in disarray. A message is sent to Feathers via Foe, who utilizes the shadowland room to cross over to Creation. Foe finds that Feathers has guests, three Solars by the names of Seeker, Disciple and Nightingale. They briefly interrogate him and Feathers, but both resist giving away the deathknights. Foe leaves Feathers' castle, and Maze goes in to check up on him, to find the Solars as well. The deathknights, following this, decide to chill in the Underworld for a while and search for Stalker's monstrance. The Solars eventually leave, and Foe gets Feathers to arrange for him a way to rejoin the Abyssals, via Infallible Messenger. Harrower prepares an ambush site in the Underworld. Foe eventually rejoins them, and gets tasked with carrying Mirrors' armour over to Feathers so he can call her ghost. This is foiled by the fact that Foe had attuned to it, breaking any mystic links. Foe goes back and brings back Mirrors' daiklave. This time, Feathers is more successful in the summoning, only to get himself and Foe seared with Oblivion as the Neverborn intercede on Mirrors' behalf. Everyone decides that going Nexuswards is probably a good idea. A lot of WORDS WORDS WORDS are exchanged, and people get some faffery out of their system. Maze says he'll buy Scarlet a kitten. Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Foe go back briefly to Feathers', pick up the warstride and provisions, then go back to the Underworld, and fly forth to Nexus. They encounter two warring ghost armies on the way, led by two Emperors, but in the end do not make any deals with them. Afterwards, they cross over into Creation at Shackelgrieve. Stalker visits her manse. Harrower stops by Varsi later, and buys some magical tools for Stalker, and gets the party attention from an impromptu Wyld Hunt, who follow them all the way to Nexus. Nexus 2: The Electric Bugaloo The Clusterfuck (4 sessions) Harrower, Maze, Stalker, Fox and Foe argue plans, then Fox deposits them 2 minutes' run away from a gate to Nexus. Maze and Fox go invisible to infiltrate, while Stalker, Harrower and Foe stand around in challenge to the incoming Wyld Hunt. The Wyld Hunt conceal themselves in a copse of trees and begin sniping. Stalker, Foe and Harrower get him. Harrower proceeds to run away, and counterattacks to deter further attacks. Stalker goes invisible. Foe keeps getting hit, so Stalker saves him. This proves unwise, because she gets hit by Resonance, and a Resonance Eruption. The Neverborn use her as a sock puppet, and use her to slay Foe. Maze and Harrower try to prevent this, but fail. Maze gets connected with important people in Nexus, staying undercover with Fox. Harrower and Stalker meet up a day's travel from Nexus and discuss things. Stalker searches for Maze and Fox, but finds three Solars. The Solars give her a message to bring to Harrower: he has seven days to surrender himself to arrest, so he can be properly tried. Harrower, meanwhile, decimates the Wyld Hunt bothering the party, while the survivors flee by Stormwind Rider. Stalker eventually finds Maze and Fox. They have a long conversation about how the Neverborn killed Foe. Harrower sits there and heals. Fox sends a message to Harrower telling him that a lift on the bounty is being arranged, and that Solars are hunting for him, and that they have set him a time in which he can come peacefully. Stalker visits Harrower and they talk about recent matters and future plans, at length. Stalker and Harrower exchange armours and prepare to enter the city. Maze introspects, finds that his earlier incarnations knew Returning Coyote as an often-reincarnating underachiever, with an uncanny ability to retain memories. Harrower and Stalker enter the city, find Fox and Maze, and also a new party member: the Daybreak, Traitor To A Just Cause. There is lots of talking, and sourcing Harrower a safehouse to heal at, where he is haunted by Stalker who is bored. Stalker does good deeds and gets Resonance. Maze plots to get access to the Silver Pact's time chambers, and sends a letter to Feathers via Fox. Traitor tells of his backstory with the Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible and is adopted by Harrower. Harrower is convinced by Maze to forgo surrendering himself to the Solars. Everyone catches a Stormwind to Stalker's manse, without being chased out of the city, even. Ruby Quest (4 sessions) The stormwind is attacked by bees. Harrower kills them. Everyone argues about the usual. When they arrive at Stalker's manse, Stalker retrieves the warstrider. Stalker senses her rock. Argument renews. Fox sends messages back and forth to her mentor, Bright Ruby Wolf, who says she knows someone with a time-expander den. Stalker heads off to look for her rock. Everyone else hops on a stormwind and heads to Wolf's place. Stalker moves out and into the Underworld. There, she argues with ghosts in Shackelgrieve, and generally homes in on her rock, which she believes is somewhere on the Stygian Isle. Meanwhile, the rest of the party arrive at Bright Ruby Wolf's estate, which is a fortified town of wolfmen. Ruby herself manages to be friendly towards the deathknights and her charge, even if the beastmen are uneasy. There are promises of a meal, which Harrower rejects, then agrees to come along for the chit-chat anyway. Over a meal, Harrower, Fox and Traitor explain their situation, referring to Maze for the actual reason they need a time chamber. Bright Ruby Wolf tells the story of a deranged friend of hers who has a Frozen Ripple Lair, and some restrictions on meeting the Wyld-touched personage. Fox and Ruby exchange banter. Meanwhile, Stalker meets the ghost of Tallest Oak on the road, going to Nexus, who seems to have been dead for far longer than the two years the party last met him. The two chat for a while, then part ways. Harrower, Maze, Fox and Traitor go with Ruby to Asparagus Tree Adept's lair, which is an underground bunker staffed with ant-things. Maze manages to talk him into something resembling sensical conversation, which leads them to entering the Lunar's time-differential chamber. Meanwhile, Stalker encounters a deathknight on the road, Reaper of the Unhallowed Crop, who tries to recruit her for the First and Forsaken Lion. Stalker refuses. Why Splitting Parties Is Bad (6 sessions) Stalker gets to Lookshy, robs the Guild, and sends a messenger to the rendezvous site with messages for Harrower. Having done that, she goes to under-Lookshy, and catches a boat going to the Stygian Isle, agreeing to do a whole lot of work in return for cheap passage. Meanwhile, the others exit the time chamber after a subjective seven months. They met with Ruby and Adept briefly, then went along with Fox on the Stormwind back to Stalker's lake. On the way, Harrower scourges himself, to appease the Neverborn and lose some Resonance. The party has a faffing and discussion session due to lack of ST. Errata Team Prime decides to go back to Nexus and start looking for Solar Circle Sorcerers or other cues there, and later get a raksha army to march on Thorns. Stalker plays the part of Greek Chorus and says that things will go wrong. Stalker in the guise of the Reaper sails. The others go to Nexus. Traitor hilariously fails at usefully binding a ghost while waiting outside with Harrower. Maze finds the location of a DB sorcerer who apparently knows Demon of the Second Circle. They go there and find a tower permeated with demons. They get an implicit invitation by way of open door. Harrower, Maze, Fox and Traitor get an audience with the sorcerer. He turns out to be an Akuma, so they decline to have anything to do with him, and return to Nexus. Harrower decides to enter Nexus undisguised, and gets chased out by inclement weather. Meanwhile, Stalker runs on water and land to reach the necropolis of Stygia. Harrower, Maze, Fox and Traitor plan to raid the tower and kill the sorcerer, following advice from Feathers and Ruby. Meanwhile, Stalker goes to Oblivion, where she finds her sister and her monstrance. After some shenanigans, she takes off with her rock, having had a brief conversation with Warped Mirrors Shattered. Of interest is also that she learns the name of her father. Stalker returns to her manse. The others want to kill the Akuma, but find his tower missing, so they join up with Stalker at her manse, then go find the manse of one of the hearthstones Maze found in Denandsor. Scarlet gets a cherub from Butterfly, saying that deathknights have been sighted in the North, and that it would be nice if someone checked these out. Sidequest: Abyssals in the Snow (5 sessions) Before going off actually scouting, Maze leads the search for the manse of the other 5-dot stone he has. The party finds a fortress occupied by wolfmen. Stalker slaughters them wholesale. The hearthstone is identified, and on consideration, handed to Traitor. Then, everyone flies north. En-route, Traitor's hearthstone explodes. It is theorized that Stalker's massacre of the wolfmen caused the geomancy of the manse to change, and the subsequent catastrophic failure of the hearthstone. Eight days later, the party arrives in the general area in the North they needed to get to, suffering frostbite. They find a snowed-in village full of dead people and former violence. And everyone argues all the time, trying to assign blame to others. Traitor threw a fit and left the party, wandering off into the darkness. Stalker and Harrower analyzed what had transpired, and found that a small army of humanoids arrived there, killed everyone, and left westwards. Did I mention they argued all the time? They did. The team track down and confront an abyssal leading an army of ghosts and mortals. He is cryptic and is not fooled by Stalker trying to impersonate Warped Mirrors Shattered. He also claims to be on a mission to kill everything on behalf of his masters. Harrower and Stalker, who were on the confrontation team, allow him to walk onwards. Scarlet sends a cherub to Butterly. Afterwards, they take refuge is a genocided town, and argue. Scarlet corresponds with Butterfly and finds that the missing scouts were beastmen, and one Lunar. Then Harrower (backed, but not necessarily, by Maze and Stalker) defeats the nameless deathknight's army. The deathknight commits suicide rather than be killed by Harrower. Looting turns up orders showing that he was one of several deathknights sent North by Warped Mirrors Shattered, who are supposed to meet up near Whitewall. There is also a black rubber ducky which appears indestructible. With the deathknight dispatched, the team agrees that the job is completed, and decides to look into meeting with Stalker's family. Some provisions need to be gotten from Nexus, however, and that's where the deathknights go first. Only that they don't find it - only a clearing where the city may have been. An argument on whether the city was actually there at some point at all follows. Investigation turned up nothing particularly coherent. In the end, they decide that it's best to simply go shopping in Lookshy or on the way. Stalker's Father (4 sessions) Harrower, Stalker, Maze and Fox choose to land near a village a few miles from Lookshy. For being rather obvious deathknights, they get an encounter with the local soldiery, whom Maze brainfucks into confusion, enabling him and Fox to buy clothes and leave. Stalker helps disguise Fox and Harrower. Afterwards, looking sort of normal, the decision is made to go to Lookshy itself. The team walks into Lookshy, but are stopped by guards just inside. They are brought to audience with Nefvarin Yan, a Dragon-Blooded officer of Lookshy. Harrower attempts lying, but it fails. Harrower attempts telling the half-truth, but it fails. Harrower attempts being executed and thereby getting off scot-free out of impersonating an officer, but that results in an alarm being raised. Maze saves the day by impersonating a god and claiming that Harrower is a god of death gone AWOL. This ends with Harrower, Maze and Stalker being escorted out of the city. Scarlet is left all alone! Harrower encounters a Twi on the road, who is definitely not a traveling mage, but joins his noble quest anyway. Maze and Scarlet have a nice evening out. Meanwhile, Stalker scales walls and searches the town - which is very annoyingly secured and laid out - for the Chan residence. In the end, she finds it, where she encounters Cho again, talking to his uncle, who is named Qiuo. Stalker manages to prove, by way a blood test, that she is Qiuo's daughter. Cho is involved, despite his reluctance to be in this mess. Stalker and her father catch up; he tells her she and her sister were spies sent to Thorns by Lookshy, but were presumed to be killed until now. Meanwhile, the rest of the team wait outside, and meet a new renegade Abyssal: Resplendent Cuttlefish, who joins the party. Everyone bitches at Stalker. Then Stalker appears via teleportation. Then everyone argues, of course. People vent Resonance. The black ducky is analyzed, without much success. Eventually, everyone packs up and goes to Nexus. Nexus Yet Again (3 sessions) The party comes to Nexus. Everyone flees from Harrower. Twi and Cuttlefish look up raksha in a library. Maze does vigilante stuff to prevent looting. Then the Emissary comes to kill Harrower again, but is fought off this time, after a very lengthy battle that's remarkably undestructive to the city - just an inn was lost. Then the arguing started again. Twi healed any who needed healing with her chalice of blood. Harrower goes outside Nexus, and sits on the road to read books about raksha. Maze and Scarlet and Cuttlefish explore the town a bit, but find mostly looters. Stalker bothers Harrower. Twi noticed a manse form out of thin air outside Nexus. The manse had essence cannons and began firing upon Harrower. Stalker went into melee, and managed to damage it a bit. Scarlet summoned the stormwind, and whisked everyone not capable of flight away before Harrower was destroyed. Plans were discussed. The women argued at length. Back To The North (6 sessions) Stalker separates from the others to make a detour to her manse, while the rest go directly to the North. There, they find death and devastation, but strangely no ghosts at all, just shadowlands. Scarlet learns to summon demons and summons Sliough III, an agata. Cuttlefish collects bones and other body parts, for use in necrotech. Moving on, the party finds a city that put up a fight, complete with three dead dragon-blooded. The next day, Stalker rejoins them - sort of - fairly near to Whitewall, at another dead city. Scarlet gets a message from Feathers, saying that Butterfly may be in trouble somewhere in the North. Scarlet sent back a message asking for location. Then everyone speculated. Scarlet receives a reply, which identifies the city of Snowguard, where everyone goes - though Stalker only incidentally. Stalker and the others reach Snowguard, which is surrounded by deathknights, ghosts and soldiers. Also, it is burning. Stalker wears her sister's getup and gets inside no problem. Maze raises an alarm trying to simply walk past, but manages to get inside the city as well. The others are carried off out of sight by Scarlet. Stalker invites herself to a meeting between thirty deathknights, among them Reaper. After a brief parlay where she demands Mirrors' current address, she is attacked by just about everyone, but manages to parry everything perfectly then flee outside existence. Maze gets himself in a bind, since sentries are unusually competent, and is pursued by deathknights... until he has a flashback to his past life, for about five hours. Stalker returns to the stormwind, with news. Everyone but Stalker is of the mind that the whole Creation should know about what is happening here. Scarlet sent out warnings and pleas for help to her entire contact list. Maze awakens on mountaintop, injured, bloody, out of motes and arrows. Stalker went, at normal walking pace, back to the city. Scarlet gets answers. Feathers and Ruby would send word out. The Solars reply more enigmatically. Maze gets off his mountain and rejoins the others. Stalker investigates the city, finds the deathknights gone into the Underworld. When everyone is once again in one place, a massive argument breaks out. Stalker comes to blows briefly with Twi. Team retreats a bit for safety and rests. Stalker infiltrates Snowguard, finds Terrestrials, exchanges information with them, and heads on her way. Apparently, neither Butterfly nor the deathknights can be found. Then everyone argues for a while, with demon demonstrations. Feathers was sent a sitrep and a request for Raksha tips. The team set themselves up on a beach. Feathers sent back a reply of reinforcements at Snowguard, and some strange books for Harrower. People fail to bring swimsuits, so there's no swimsuit episode. Instead, they argue a bit about fair folk, and Wyld Hunts and stuff. Harrower trades knowledge of the world for knowledge of the beyond. Harrower attempts sleeping, by way of being drugged, only to resuscitated by Twi. Harrower attempts sleep by being knocked out by Scarlet, and his takes him into dreamland for longer than five minutes, though it takes a lot of hitting. Scarlet summons more agatae: Rilia, Sinic and Eundo. News comes from Feathers: no real progress, except a skirmish of Lunars versus Dragon-Blooded. Eundo is difficult. Harrower is heavy. Scarlet summons an Aterrsqua named Eighty-Eight for Harrower instead, it is huge and flying and fast overland. Faffing continues. Stalker approaches Harrower covertly and paranoids all over the place. Stalker then apparently leaves. Possibly forever? Into The Void (10 sessions) Harrower, Maze, Scarlet and Twi fly around looking for shadowlands, and eventually find one - Marama's Fell. Meanwhile, Stalker goes directly to Snowguard, and enters the Underworld there. Both groups go to the Mouth of the Void, one day apart, and navigate the Labyrinth. Stalker goes idle by her sister's monstrance. Meanwhile, Harrower jumps into the End of All Things. Harrower reforms as a skeleton. Twi bitches at him. Everyone leaves on Stormwind. Harrower drinks Twi's blood and forms a better body. Everyone goes to a town in the frozen wastes and pretend they are normal for a little while. Afterwards, the stormtrain goes around the Threshold. Twi hunts down a roc. Stalker remains in waiting. Harrower, Maze, Scarlet and Twi fly to Thorns, talking about plans. Meanwhile, Stalker stops faffing around at the Mouth of the Void and goes to Thorns too. They briefly encounter one another and decide to ignore the other party. Harrower slays a couple of regiments of undead, gets loot. Stalker annoys a deathknight called the Infinite Scorn of Life's Abundance for details on temperate shadowlands, then goes off to Walker's Realm. Harrower dismembers several more regiments of mortals, ghosts and zombies. Finally, he is faced by Scorn, and manages to slay him after protracted personal combat. Then, the team flies off to find some Guild house. Harrower, Maze, Scarlet and Twi reach Celeren, then faff around buying and selling things. Twi starts learning languages and/or Necromancy. Stalker continues running. Harrower, Maze, Scarlet and Twi go to Mishaka to shop. They find a frog-themed magic shop ran by a gravity-defying witch, who - after lots of innuendo - sells them a Necromancy-teaching skull and a pair of potions of growth. The latter of which Maze is holding onto until Scarlet can persuade him to give them up. Scarlet teaches Maze Sorcery. Harrower faffs. Stalker stalks. Twi absents. Stalker finds Mirrors in Walker's palace. Stalker becomes Mirrors' nakama. They go off towards Rock River on a stormwind. Scarlet finally convinces Maze to let her try the potion, and grows in assets. Twi faffs around with the skull. Harrower faffs around in general. Everyone faffs around. Scarlet and Maze go shopping and trolling people. Stalker travels. Twi learns Necromancy. Harrower tries to make-out with Twi but fails. Scarlet has a crisis of faith and changes Motivation. Scarlet has a little breakdown. Stalker and Mirrors assasinate some Terrestrials in Greyfalls, then kill most of the town's inhabitants. Scarlet gets a premonition, then prays to Luna, who grants her a vision of what has occurred. Everyone Picks on Mask of Winters (4 sessions) Stalker and Mirrors have a chat while on the stormwind. Harrower browbeats Scarlet into accepting that things can be done, and faffery isn't acceptable. Scarlet manages to convince Maze to let her have the potion, and grows some more. Twi is there too. The plan is to kick Mask of Winters down for good and take his stuff. Harrower and Scarlet talk about summoning demons appropriate for the task. Eventually, Scarlet summons a zombie-eating blob of a demon. Stalker and Mirrors go to Nathir, and attend a secret meeting. News of the destruction of many cities in the Greyfalls region come in, and the conspirators fly off separately to Chaya. Scarlet summons demons for Harrower. Harrower tries to get nookie from Twi, but fails miserably. Maze is there too. Stalker and Mirrors get into a silence contest. Meanwhile, Harrower aided by Maze, Twi, Scarlet and various demons attacks and kills Mask of Winters at the Juggernaught. Stalker continues to silence. Meanwhile, Scarlet, Twi and Maze liberate Thorns, which was set on fire and its undead set to kill by their retreating superiors. Some two thousand inhabitants are saved. The trio plots salt acquisition. Sim Thorns (8 sessions) Scarlet and Maze talk about running the town. Scarlet spams her Lunar friends asking for salt. Harrower overpromotes a bunch of goons, destroys monstrances, and loots artifacts. Scarlet takes command of goons and determines that the controls for Juggernaught still sorta work. Maze tries to find a way to communicate with Juggernaught. Stalker and Mirrors go to Chaya, and find that there have been deathknight desertions and murders. Nonetheless, they assault Larjyn, but get beaten up by surprise Lunars. Meanwhile, Ruby arrives with lots of salt in Thorns. Harrower and Maze greet her and the three talk a bit about the deathknight threat in the East. Harrower trains the survivors. Harrower and Maze and Scarlet train and administer and whatnot. They get visitors from the swamps of Olm, and the barbarias stay for a party, then leave, promising diplomats later. Meanwhile, Stalker revives, having been rescued by Mirrors. The other deathknights haven't fared well, either, so Mirrors orders them to scatter. She and Stalker go to the Blessed Isle to cause trouble. Maze and Scarlet troll for peasants and craftspeople, and get them, doubling the population of Thorns. Twi dabbles in necrotech. Harrower trains, himself and others. Stalker travels with Mirrors, talking about duckies. Stalker and Mirrors reach the Blessed Isle, exit in some random butcher's secret cave, then proceed to ineffectively murder some peasants in the night. Meanwhile, Twi makes salt grow out of skulls. Harrower conscripts people to spread salt around. Maze and Scarlet talk with the witch they imported, learning that her name is Anura, that her grandmother studied under a Solar, and that she can make all sorts of potions. Harrower and Twi faff around Juggernaught. Scarlet seeks the shrinkage potion recipe. Maze goes into the wilderness, and prays to the Unconquered Sun, for which he receives boons from TUCS and punishment from the Neverborn. Meanwhile, Stalker separates from Mirrors after extended talking. Harrower, Twi, Maze and Scarlet entertain diplomats from Olm who establish en embassy in the city. Stalker evades ambush by Dragon-Blooded. There is lots of faffing and talking about coronation. Thorns gets renamed New Rose. Stalker doubles back and warns her sister, then continues to Lookshy. Scarlet gets a report on lack of food in the near future from Greystone the Terrestrial, who gets told to make fishing boats. Harrower goes to cut down some lumber. Twi and Scarlet get to the bottom of controlling the ant-things. Maze determines location of his monstrance. Plans are made for assaulting the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. Bitchslapping the Lover Stalker runs. Everyone else plans. Scarlet makes an antidote to the potion of exploration, and gets store credit with Anura. Maze explains who the Lover is and why and how they should kill her. Scarlet sends a message to the Solar Deliberative, but the answer is inconclusive. Stalker visits Lookshy, but gets told that her father is not there. She pursues the legion he is moving with south. Meanwhile, the others debate plans. A Lunar babysitter, Black Wolf, arrives and is instructed on what to do while the others are gone killing the Lover. Stalker walks after the soldiers. Meanwhile, Harrower, Maze, Scarlet and Twi go to the Fortress of Crimson Ice. They get hit by an avalanche, get told to relinquish mortal pleasures, get invited by the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. Harrower tries to kill the Lover, but kills several Solars and DBs instead and gets trapped into a box floating amidst nothing. Maze finds his monstrance and several others. Scarlet is a scarf. Twi kills some DBs and mooks. The Lover appears to shatter into glass when hit. Stalker walks. Harrower yo-yos with an unconscious Solar in a box in Elsewhere. Twi gets into a skirmish with a deathknight woman with a wand of death, but escapes, then rejoins Maze and Scarlet. Maze briefly becomes his alternate self and tries to work out where Harrower is with Scarlet. Maze proceeds to destroy a monstrance of the far-away deathknight and talks to them briefly, but fails to extract any promises. Then a section of the castle is sent to the darkness below, but Maze and the other two escape by flight.